Re: As President Mahama dazes those insulting him (as incompetent)

This is a rejoinder to Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor’s article by which he praised the President’s attack on Dr. Bawumia. To summarise, Dr. Bokor wrote that ‘President Mahama has delivered very hefty rhetorical punches to daze those insulting him at will, especially those who know no other derogatory word than incompetent to bandy about… He hit them right where it hurts and they have flinched but not been able to clinch!!’ Hmmmm!, despite Michael Bokor calling himself an “Assistant Professor” of English, he believes that describing the president as incompetent is derogatory. Anyway, what about millions of people around the world who are assessed by their employers as incompetent? The term incompetent is frequently used to rate the performance of employees who are not achieving the competencies of their positions. Therefore, it has nothing to do with derogatoriness but the reflection of the performance of a person. As a president, Mr. Mahama is an employee of Ghanaians and we have the right to assess him as competent or incompetent.

By the way, there is ample evidence from some of your own writings that you have on numerous occasions implied that the president is incompetent irrespective of whether you used the term or not. For instance, when the President appointed Justice Yaw Appau as the Sole Commissioner of Judgment you wrote on 10 October 2012 that:

“but I have serious doubts whether this is how to solve the problem. I won’t hail it as a welcome relief because it is a mere face-saving move. It won’t end the judgement debt spree … We need action now, not any further complication of simple cases of thievery through an empty bureaucratic move!!”

Despite all the public anger at the Woyome scandal particularly, and the fact that this payment of judgement debt is a subtle means by some unscrupulous government officials and their collaborators in business to fleece the national coffers, little is being done to solve the problem.” (see http://thechronicle.com.gh/who-needs-a-sole-commissioner-for-judgement-debts/ )

So if you think that a president cannot solve a simple problem such as ensuring that money paid wrongly to some people under the so called judgement debt is retrieved, are you not implying that he is incompetent? Your statement that you have“doubts whether this is how to solve the problem” clearly implies that the president was taking a wrong decision and not achieving a competency of his position. Anyway, despite that some have stated that the sole commissioner did a good job, the president is now using the report to witch hunt the NPP members while the main culprits are left untouched.

Meanwhile, Mr Roland Agambire , Zoomlion and others who looted the large funds from Gyeeda and SADA projects are walking free because they are untouchable. The other day, I read that Roland Agambire was suing Manasseh Azure Awuni because he has implied on his face book that Roland is a thief. So Roland does not know that he is a thief? If you do not want to be called a thief, you do not loot from state coffers. The other time I heard him that he was going to build a 10 billion dollars city. Where is he going to get that money from other that looting from the state?

Again, on 22 July 2014, Dr. Bakor asked, “Is President Mahama still a communications expert?” He further elaborated that:

“One major lapse in the handling of affairs by this Mahama-led government is the failure to use COMMUNICATION effectively.”

“Sadly, the President is touted as a communications expert and he is fond of using social media to attempt connecting with Ghanaians as he puts out there anything that he thinks will encourage the sharing of ideas. I have written to complain about that approach, but he still uses it. Unfortunately, as we have seen from the retort given to his recent post on Twitter by a staff member of the United States Embassy in Accra, that recourse to social media has turned out to be counter-productive. Better measures can be used to make the government’s case in public discourse.”

“The truth is that the agitations and street demonstrations in protest against the living conditions in the country (or the government’s inability to tackle the economic challenges, the depreciation of the Cedi, and high taxes, among others) have the potential to degenerate into open confrontations between the protesters and the Establishment, which by and large can endanger the political set-up itself.” (See: http://vibeghana.com/2014/07/22/is-president-mahama-still-a-communications-expert/ )

So Dr., you yourself believe that the Government that John Mahama has put together as a leader is unable to tackle the economic challenges, the depreciation of the Cedi, and high taxes, among others. Yet, you do not accept that he is incompetent, and then what is he?

On 4 November 2013, Dr. Bokor wrote the following article: “Is the government afraid of its policies being monitored? In the article Dr Bokor criticised why if President Mahama and his team are bent on solving national problems through the policies that they enunciate and implement, then, they were afraid to support Evaluation and Oversight Unit that was headed by Dr. Tony Aidoo, instead of abandoning it.

He further wrote that “As the economic situation worsens and Ghanaians sit on tenterhooks, anything that portrays the Mahama-led administration in a bad light should prick everyone's concern. That is why it is imperative for the President to be on top of the game… He must stamp his authority on the administration and get things done! In this early part of his reign, one expects more dynamism and focus than what has ensued so far. Is he listening at all? (see: http://www.modernghana.com/news/501174/1/is-the-government-afraid-of-its-policies-being-mon.html )

Tell me Assistant Professor, has the economic situation not even become worse since you wrote your article? If you yourself acknowledge that the economic situation has been worsening, why are you therefore annoyed if we call Mr Mahama incompetent?

Last but not the least on 16 January 2014, Dr. Bokor wrote an article entitled “Prez Mahama, Why this Decision to "Hang" our Soldiers?” In this article, he criticised President Mahama for taking a hasty decision to send 850 Ghanaian troops to South Sudan.

Dr. Bokor stated further that “President Mahama has confirmed my earlier fears that Ghana would be rushed into this conflict … Here is something from him that makes me cringe: “When I received the request from the UN Secretary-General, I did not hesitate to give my provisional approval,” he added.

I am more concerned because this decision to send Ghanaian troops into that war zone was taken by the Executive (regardless of the involvement of the National Security Council which is nothing but an appendage of the Executive, though).

“… I am highly disappointed!! Deploying Ghanaian troops in conflict zones should not be the sole prerogative of the President, more so when President Mahama’s own utterance gave me the impression that he had a pre-meditated intention to send Ghanaian troops to South Sudan, which was why he didn’t hesitate at all in accepting the request from the UN Secretary-General. Too bad for our democracy. I have said it and have no regrets for saying so.”

Sure, if Dr. Bokor has the audacity to describe the decisions of President Mahama as “Too bad for our democracy” and you “have no regrets for saying so”, why are you in conflict with Dr. Bawumia if he also criticizes the President for being incompetent with the management of the Ghanaian economy. After all, you and Dr. Bawumia who has the appropriate skills to criticize in the respective issues that you have raised. It is a fact that Dr. Bawumia is distinguished economist, therefore, he understands what he is saying.

However, as Assistant Professor in English, what do you understand about security to criticize the president for sending the troops to South Sudan? Or are you only worried about the reference to the President as incompetent? So let me ask you, if the president is not performing his work (in other words not achieving his competencies), what then do you want us to call him? “Tweeeeeee, he can go to hell and we will continue to call him so because his records require that. The president, his relatives, conies and appointees are only interested in using the state resources to amass wealth while the poor are becoming poorer and poorer.

Let me ask the president, how many cars can he sits in at a time? How many bedrooms can he sleep in a night? This is why King Solomon stated that “"Everything is meaningless…completely meaningless!" (Ecclesiastes 1:2). Similarly, Psalm 39:6 states “We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it.” So all the wealth that President Mahama and those around him are acquiring that has led to mismanagement of the economy, what will they do with them if they die or do they think they will never die? Instead of leaving a good legacy, he will only be remembered us incompetent president.

By Joseph Annor: master of Accounting and CPA